Zitpaaltjes: Amsterdam’s Bike-Inspired Street Furniture

Yesterday I came across a nice project by Jihyun David while strolling around the center of Amsterdam. David transformed the so-called Amsterdammertjes, the famous and ubiquitous posts in the streets of Amsterdam, into a rather comfortable ‘bar’ stool.

The project called Zitpaaltje, or ZIP when abbreviated, is a temporary street installation inspired by the Amsterdammertjes and the Dutch bicycle culture.

The seats are made from classic Dutch bike saddles and constructed on the bollards with a solid piece of metal. At the bottom a footrest is attached to the bollard, to make the stool pretty comfortable. The project is meant to activate the street as a place to enjoy. The concept invites us to reconsider the importance of the street as a social space instead of a traffic domain.

This seats located at the bridge between the Keizersgracht and the Leliegracht provide a great view over the water in the historic city center of the Dutch capital. Click here for photos of this remarkable urban intervention and click here to become a fan on Facebook.

As kick-off of the upcoming art event Liefde in de Stad, organised by concert hall Paradiso this month in Amsterdam, we’d like to introduce an installation that was part of the event back in 2006. ‘Liefde in de stad’ means something simple like ‘love in the city’. Because we are very interested in the erotic…

Wonder how to make easy DIY furniture for the urban realm? The French artist Cedric Bernadotte came up with this interventions made from stretch plastic that’s usually being used for the sealing of cargo. The ultra flexible addition to the urban environment should be considered as a contribution to the debate about temporary use of…

When you jump into a taxi the first thing you do is telling the driver where to go. That’s not exactly the case with these Converse-branded cabs that are currently driving around the dark streets of Amsterdam.

Brooklyn-based artist and architect Chat Travieso has designed a series of collapsible shelters for urban camping purposes. Made of steel, wood, aluminum, masonite, plastic, foam, canvas, and found cart, Travieso’s good-looking one-person structures are foldable and allow for easy set-up anywhere in the urban jungle.